Lost, but can't be founnd
by Redstrawberry900
Summary: Yeah, corny title. Artemis Fowl is older, wiser, helpless; a boy living on the edge, living in fear. Alex is his sister. She's been broken by fear. The City is fear. And they belong to it. But not for long. A discovery about Alex; a remembrance.
1. Prologue

**_An extract from Angeline Fowl's diary, _****_10th September 2001_****_._**

****

_When we first adopted Alex I was unsure about the age gap between her and Arty. I needn't have worried. They took to each other straight away. We hardly saw Alex; she was so busy with Arty on his computer. I know they were scheming something, and I wouldn't put it past Arty to be the reason why some large global businesses has gone bankrupt – but I never mentioned it to my dear husband. It would worry him too much. He has made a full recovery and is walking well on his metal leg. _

_Speaking of him making a full recovery, he is taking me to __New York__ tomorrow to celebrate his health. We have asked _Butler___ to come with us. I'm sure he'll enjoy it. I shall enjoy it too._

_*_

**Cornwall****; **England****.****** Half a day away from The City.**

It was Alex who found the box. She was jogging along the beach on a mission from the silver soldiers looking for sea cabbages washed up in last night's storm, because the fishing had been bad again. She, and the other young girls, were half a day from home. Flicking blond hair from her eyes, she tilted her head to see it better.

"Katy?" 

Her friend looked up from chasing a thick coated, black Alaskan hare across the muddy sand, and came over to where she was standing.

"What is it?"

"That."

She nodded at the box, having no hands to spare because they were clutching at the few sea cabbages they could find.

 It was different; it didn't belong there. 

All around was a rocky outcrop, bashed into a vertical cliff by the never ending stormy seas, and the low hills behind them, followed by The City. A great mass of rundown concrete buildings, surrounded by a high concrete wall. They said it was too keep the bad things out. In reality, it was to keep them in. After the sixty minute war, many had been wiped out by the nuclear weapons. They claimed they would stop that. They would make the world a better place by making the outcasts live without food or water – away from The City. The people that managed to stay out were freer than the others. It was a prison. Not many ever saw a blade of grass in their lives. And amongst all this; between wilderness and City, there was the box. It was made of a rich, red wood, burnt to blackness in some areas, but it still radiated a strange kind of light so you had to look at it out of the corner of your eye. 

It was different; it was from somewhere else. 

Katy bent down and touched it, as if it were a terrified injured animal. She stroked the burnt patches as if they were deep wounds. "It's dry. It's…warm. Shall I open it?" Her eyes sparkled with excitement. 

Alex shook her head. "No. Let's take it back. I'll give it to my brother, Artemis. He'll know what it is. It's probably from The Dark Period."

The Dark Period was what the silver soldiers called the time before The City. They battered it into minds of children at school, and forced adults to believe. Not many could remember The Dark Period anymore.

Alex put her sea cabbages into the net Katy held out, and picked up the box tenderly. "It's getting late." She reasoned. "We'd better go back." Katy nodded in response and they set off back to The City.

Neither of them noticed the man lying amongst the rocks, just twenty paces from where they found the box. His skin and hair were the palest of whites, even whiter than snow. It shone with a strange light, so white it reflected the sun, but his palms of his hands were jet black.

*

Disclaimer: For all you know, I could be Eoin Colfer. But I'm not, so I don't own this. 

Yeah, I know. Short, crappy. Can you just review anyway? I want to see what you think. This has no relevance to Excavate by FairyDragonShadow. I totally made it up, and have had it written down for ages, and then I read that. 

Ah well. 

Umm…I'd appreciate it if there weren't any flames. I know I'll probably get some and I can handle them, I'd just prefer constructive criticism. Thanks.


	2. Part 1: The Killings

_I remember it. I remember it better than anyone._

_I remember it, because it was  the day we found Alex._

_It was unusual that we were on the hills in the first place. There were about thirty of us in all. A huge war party – going to wage war on…wolves! I didn't want to go. Nobody did. We were just enlisted. You don't fight with the decisions of the silver soldiers. _

_Juliet said it was stupid. Just because a lone wolf had attacked Martin as it came over the hills was no reason to risk our lives. You could almost see the steam coming out of her ears. But she said nothing to the silver soldiers. _

_As I remember, it was two summers after Martin, Juliet's arch enemy, had beat her for the title of Lawspeaker of the tribe. She was licking her wounds then, I suppose. She swore she was going to tell Martin exactly what she thought of him straight to her face, but now she didn't have the chance. She should have said it then, in my opinion, but that seems to be counting for less and less in The City nowadays._

_That probably had something to do with it. The fight, I mean. Why we were on the hills hunting wolves._

_It _was_ stupid, I thought as we marched across the barren landscape. Wolves live in woods, and there was nothing but grass and the occasional heather on the hills. Martin was showing he was the better leader of The City all right. He was still able to get us to things we didn't want to even when he was dead. Some talent._

_I was the only child there. And I was a child then. However much I hated to admit it, I was still seen as a child at seventeen. There was no such thing as a teenager anymore. You were either a child with no responsibilities, or an adult with thousands. I was a child with thousands of responsibilities. Different again. I'd come to realize that wasn't the best thing to be._

_"Well Arty," Juliet said to me, "if that idiot is going to get us to go on a wild goose chase, we may as well be the best out of all of them."_

_I grinned. Juliet was born with a competitive instinct. I was developing one very quickly. _

_What this meant was that she'd take the opportunity to show me, almost a son to her, off to everyone. Because Martin, the former Lawspeaker, had no son. Just a daughter. A very stupid, rather clumsy, frightingly bad looking daughter. Fay. There was no one to succeed him as Lawspeaker, and that meant that another had to be chosen. And someone with a son already in the package was going to be looked at very seriously. _

_I didn't care that I was being used for her use. For if she became Lawspeaker, the benefits for me were astoundingly good. The adrenaline pounded through my veins like poison._

_It was late in the day when we reached the higher slopes of the hills. A couple of hounds had picked up the scent of something hours ago, and we'd been following the trail ever since. Even so, often we lost the trail and had to hang around while Sif, who was our best dog handler, made wide circles around us with his bloodies. Eventually they'd find the trail and we'd be off again. But always higher – towards the mountains._

_We kept at the back of the group, with the slower members, jogging slowly. Why waste our energy now, when we'd need it later in the hunt? But it wasn't easy to stay jogging. The adrenaline pumping through begged to be let out in a huge spurt of energy. But I didn't rush off. I had more control than that._

_I became a bit hesitant when we suddenly turned off in a totally different direction. But Juliet stopped me and pointed to the ground._

_"See that?" I squatted down and ran my hands through the thick tussocks of grass, and when I turned my palm to my face it was stained a deep red. I sniffed at it. Deer blood. "The wolves obviously ate here. And you know that they always hide away for a few days to let the herd calm and get over the shock. Clever animals. And by the looks of things this was a recent kill. We'll be coming across their hiding place any time now."_

_I scraped my hand down the side of my black hunting robes, and got back up. _

_We caught up with the group in no time. I hadn't had training from some wannabe. Juliet was every bit as good as Butler was, maybe better. No, she was more like that woman from my dreams. Short, auburn hair, nut brown skin. I knew her, but I didn't.  I winced at the thought. I was doing it again. _

_But that thought was wiped clean out my head when we suddenly came to the top of the slope, and there, smack bang in front of us, not even a spear's throw away, were the small dark entrances to a network of caves. The dogs were going crazy, pulling against their ropes towards them. The mood had changed all of a sudden. A felt a flicker of fear set fire to my heart. _

_There was a chill in the air. We were high above the sea, directly above The City, though you couldn't see it from there. There really were wolves here,  and they had chosen somewhere special to hide. And they weren't used to being disturbed. I had never heard of wolves living in caves, and I've never heard of another case since. I should have realized then it was an omen, even if no one else did. I did manage to hold on to one thing from The Dark Period. Quick thinking. _

_It hadn't seemed real until that moment, but now Martin's ridiculous wolf chase was actually happening. It had actually come to something. Not many hunts did. We were usually forced to eat sea cabbage hand outs. _

_We avoided each others gaze; no one looked me directly in the eye. It unnerved me even more. I commanded a certain amount of respect, and this had never happened. _

_But I stepped forward anyway. I wasn't about to turn around and go home. I was outside the grey walls for once, and I wasn't going back in too easily._

_"This is what we've come for." I said, so quietly it was almost a whisper._

_"So what do we do?"_

_"You want us to go in there?"_

_"They'll rip us into pieces before we even see them…"_

_The protests came thick and fast, but Juliet clenched her fists. They made a sudden cracking sound, and that silenced everyone. Juliet was about as dangerous as a stick while the silver soldier still stood near us, making sure we didn't get out of line, or runaway. He was under strict orders: watch them. Do not order them. But he carried a gun._

_And now, a chance for my quick thinking.__ Finally. And this time I wasn't going to planning an escape route and I probably wouldn't end up in a nice little cell like I usually did. _

_I pointed at Azalea. "Light a fire. Give us some light."_

_But even as I said it, Juliet's words chased themselves around my head like the bloodie puppies. **Clever animals.**_

_*_

It had taken Alex and Katy four hours to get back to The City, lugging the half net of sea cabbages and Alex with the box tucked under one arm.

And now they just stood outside one of the huge oak front gates – that looked a lot more like doors, with wrought iron designs on the outside, and a thick layer of it embedded deep into the wood, waiting to be let in. 

Alex studied the box carefully. On closer inspection the wood not mahogany as she had expected, and the areas that had seemed burnt to a crisp, were in fact intricate designs drawn in some kind of ink. It definitely wasn't made of anything she knew. The rich reddish hue seemed to shine…no, glow, whilst still seeming to fade away, to become unnoticed. 

"What do you think it is?" Alex asked again.

"I don't know. Please let's open it." Katy's eyes shone with the same excitement she had shown on the beach,  and she reached for the box.

"No, we can't."

"Why not?"

"Do you see any way to get it open?"

And she was right. The box didn't seem to have any opening, any join, not even a small indentation to guide wandering fingers to a microhole or an invisible latch. It just seemed to be a decoration.

"But-"

"No."

At that moment that guards open the doors. There was a screech of rusty metal and a scraping of wood on concrete, before they were open and Alex and Katy found themselves staring at two, very tall, silver soldiers.

They were dressed in a silver-grey cottony material – what looked like jeans, a shirt and an overcoat, but all made of the same material. The stitching was red and rough in places, as if they had been forced to close holes in their suits. The material was light and blew backwards in the wind. Such a contrast to their boots. Huge, shiny aluminium boots that went up to their knees and had various numbers of black tape strips stuck clumsily down the sides. These were the awards. 1 award for punishing someone who had done wrong, two awards for a killing. 

A shiver ran down the backs of both girls. The boots of the guards standing three foot over them were almost all black.

Silver soldiers. The mutants of the human race. Or, if I wished to punctuate this story with more alliteration, mutant men. And every single one of them carried a long blue sword.

"Is this it?" One of them asked as they saw the half net of sea cabbages. "No wonder they don't let girls become leaders if they can't even collect sea cabbages."

Katy's face burned, but Alex stayed calm, not making eye contact. The other soldier was more sympathetic.

"Hmm…so even the seas will not let us eat."

"No, we just have scum like this who can't even-"

"Sif."

The soldier named Sif scowled as he was cut off, and instead looked over the two girls, as if deciding if he could bear to let them into his City. His eyes fixed on the box.

"What's that?"

"It's ours." Katy said quietly.

"You know the law. All objects must be inspected by the guards before letting the object into The City. You could be spies." Alex almost scoffed out loud. This guard had seen them coming in and out of The City for many winters. The chance of them being spies was extremely thin.

"It's ours." Katy said a little more forcefully.

"Give it to me."

"No." Katy was almost shouting, but Alex held out the box. There was no point in arguing. The guard, Sif, would look over the box, wouldn't be able to get into it, conclude it was merely a piece of childish rubbish and give it back. The whole process may take five minutes at the longest. But Katy snatched the box away before the guard could even think about reaching out a hand.

"It's ours." She said through gritted teeth. "Ours."

"Let me look."

"Ours."

"Just-" Alex began but was cut off.

"NO!" And Katy made to push past the guard. I expect you've probably guessed what's going to happen, so I'll tell you anyway. With one neat movement the soldier twisted her around, and for the last time in her life, Katy heard the hiss of the lethal blue sword being whisked out of its scabbard. No, I tell a lie. The other soldier drew his sword as if to stop his colleague, that was the last time, but he was too late. Sif raised the sword with both hands, sidestepped, and lopped off Katy's head and her right arm, before driving the long blade threw her back to the hilt.

The headless body fell with a thud and a gush of blood, the head rolling down the slope, a look of complete surprise still etched into its features and out of sight. 

Alex let out a small yelp of surprise and jumped backwards. She'd seen it done so many times, yet it still surprised her, to see a body with no head.

The guard bent down and picked up the box, examining it all over. Finding nothing out of the ordinary, he held it out to Alex. She couldn't tear her eyes away from the headless body of her former friend. 

"Well take it then." Alex did not move, nor speak. "Go on. Or don't you want it. I would give it to your friend as she seems so keen on it, but I can't so the _honor_ goes to you." He smirked. 

About half a day away, on the beach a man stirred. He was lying in the rocks. His hair was whiter than snow and so was his skin. His blackened palms searched for something. Something he owned. Something he wanted. Something that was missing. His eyelids snapped open. If you could see those eyes, you would never again sleep a peaceful night. Both were milky white and rolling madly. He was blind.

*

_I should have listened to their protests. Azalea was the first to go into the cave. Grasping a burning branch high above her head, she squinted into the murky gloom. She couldn't see anything, none of us could. So we stayed silent._

_You could almost feel her apprehension as she edged forward into the darkness. There was a crack of a stick from somewhere inside the cave, and she stopped dead. The beast didn't wait for her to come closer. _

_Azalea let off an eerie howl as the wolf leapt on her, pushing her to the ground. It clamped its jaws around her neck and bit down. Hard. Both her air supply and main blood vessel were cut off in one go. Juliet had drawn her small dagger and was fighting the wolf off. I wasn't far behind her._

_More wolves were streaming out of the caves now, their black coats shining. I was lunging, ducking striking in all directions. One particularly big wolf got to me before I got to it, and managed to grab my hand. I cannot bear to describe the ripping sound as the beast pulled my hand off. I was left with a stump of an arm._

_The last image I saw before I blacked out was of a small girl, around three foot tall standing in the opening to the cave. She had short, auburn hair and nut brown skin. _

_*_

Disclaimer: For all you know, I am Eoin Colfer, but I'm not so I don't own this. 

Thanks to my reviewers!! *huggles* I'll give you a clue to the next chapter. It's not what you think…

Abi.


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